The Present Disclosure relates, generally, to a card connector, and, more particularly, to a card connector having high reliability that can arrange the contact part of the tip end of the contact arm to be positioned near the back end edge of the housing while maintaining a sufficient length in spring length for the connection terminal, allowing a card having terminal members arranged on the back end side to be easily inserted and ejected.
Conventional electronic devices have been provided with a card connector to use various types of memory cards. An example is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 2002-159034. The content of the aforementioned patent application is incorporated in its entirety herein.
FIG. 8 illustrates a conventional card connector. In the drawing, 811 is a housing of a card connector made from an insulating material such as a synthetic resin, and a bottom plate 811b and pair of side plates 811c are provided, and a substantially rectangular plate shaped memory card 901 is housed. The memory card 901 is, for example, a SIM card having an electrode pad not shown exposed to the bottom surface 901a. 
Further, a plurality of terminal retention parts 811e are formed on the bottom panel part 811b, and the terminals 851 made of metal are housed and held within each terminal retention part 811e. In the example illustrated in the figure, a total of six terminals 851 are arranged so as to be lined up in 2 lines so as to align with the arrangement of electrodes of a SIM card. Further, the terminals 851 are soldered to connection pads on the surface of a circuit board not illustrated for conductivity with a conductive trace on the circuit board. Also, the housing 811 is fixed to the surface of the circuit board by soldering the electrodes to a connection pad.
In addition, tabs 861 made of metal are attached to each of the side panel parts 811c. The tabs 861 are provided with support tabs 862 having a plate shape that extend vertically parallel, and the support tabs 862 are attached so as to interpose the side panel part 811c from the top and bottom. Additionally, the housing 811 is fixed to the surface of the circuit board for further reinforcement by the support tabs 862 on the bottom side being soldered to anchoring pads formed on the surface of the circuit board.
Further, when mounting the memory card 901 into the housing 811, the memory card 901 is inserted so that the support tab 862 of the tab 861 push opens from an upward slant of the housing 811. In this manner, the inserted memory card 901 is held by the support tab 862 on the top side. Further, each of the electrode pads that are exposed on the bottom surface 901a of the memory card 901 conduct by contacting with a corresponding terminal 851.
However, there is poor usability in the conventional card connector because loading and ejecting the memory card 901 is difficult. Therefore, card connectors that have a push/push type guide mechanism that operate by pressing on the card are becoming more common for both loading and ejecting the card so that a user can load and eject a card easily with one hand.
However, in recent years, in conjunction with the miniaturization of electronic devices, there have also been advancements in the miniaturization of cards used by electronic devices. Further, miniaturizing cards increases the area ratio of the electrode pads relative to the surface of the card which reduces the available coverage for arranging electrode pads. Therefore, for cards that have two rows of electrode pads such as a SIM card, for example, the front row and back row of electrode pads are arranged respectively in positions near the front end and back end of the card. By doing this, with the card connector having a push/push type card guide mechanism, because the configuration is made for the card to be inserted into the card connector from an insertion opening, the tip end part of the contact arm of terminals corresponding to electrode pads arranged near the back end of the card must be arranged in a position near the insertion opening of the back end of the card connector.
Therefore, there is a risk of the contact arm of the terminal buckling due to contact with the card after being inserted from the insertion opening of the card connector and traveling inward when terminals are attached so that the cantilever shaped contact arm that exerts bias extends at a slant upwards toward the insertion opening from the interior of the card connector so that the tip end part is as close as possible to the insertion opening. Although the fear of the contact arm buckling is reasonably alleviated when attaching terminals so that the cantilever shaped contact arm extends at a slant upwards toward the interior from the insertion opening of the card connector, making the contact part of the tip end of the contact arm to be near to the insertion opening shortens the contact arm thereby shortening the spring length which makes contact between the tip end part and the electrode pads of the card to becomes less accurate.